Remember those leading you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith imitate, considering the outcome of their conduct. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. (Hebr 13:7-9)
The quote above is from today’s Epistle-reading for the (NC) feast of the Three Holy Hierarchs, Sts. Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. This tells us that the words above, initially written about the Apostles and others who spread the word of God in the Early Church, are todaybeing applied to these holy bishops from the 4th century: We are to remember them and imitate the faith they passed on to us in Jesus Christ, Who remains “ the same yesterday, today and forever,” rather than be carried to and fro by “ various and strange doctrines.” We are also to “ consider the outcome of their conduct”; the consequences of the way they lived and taught.
What was the “outcome” of the way of life and teaching of the Three Holy Hierarchs? Eventually, years after they died all three came to be venerated as great Church Fathers in both East and West. But this was not the universally-accepted opinion of them among their peers, other bishops, at the time of their deaths. St. Basil, who had battled various heresies taught by bishops who distorted the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, died in 379 at age 49, two years before these controversies were more or less resolved at the Second Ecumenical Council of 381. His friend, Gregory the Theologian (a.k.a. of Nazianzus), who did initially lead that Council as Archbishop of Constantinople, resigned from that position quite dramatically before the Council ended, frustrated by the partisan politics among his peers, which also involved opposition to him. He did resume his position as Bishop of Nazianzus for two years, during which he battled the Apollinarians, but retired for health-reasons and spent the last six years of his life on his family estate. As for St. John Chrysostom, most readers will know that he died in exile in 407, reviled at the time by all the leading bishops in the East.
So, if we “ consider the outcome of their conduct,” we can see that in the short-run, during their earthly lives, the Three Holy Hierarchs did not achieve ‘success’ within the church of their time. In the long-run, we have come to celebrate them as the winners, as those whose hearts were “established by grace,” as the author of Hebrews writes. The lesson I glean from all this is that I should take pause and abstain from judgment today, when we observe the controversies about which bishops of our Orthodox Churches are ‘canonical’ or ‘uncanonical.’ We might also take pause and relax about judging the outcomes of the battles we fight in our own personal and political lives. Considering “ the outcome of the conduct” of the great Church Fathers, largely marginalized at the end of their lives, Lord, grant us wisdom and patience, as You remain in our midst, “ the same yesterday, today and forever.”
